Have you ever wondered whether God hears your prayers or why you don’t see His will come to pass? Prayer should be one of the most rewarding parts of a believer’s life, but for many people it is frustrating and ineffective. There was a time when Andrew had many of the same questions you do, but over the years, he found a better way to pray.
welcome to gospel truth with Andrew
Wommack a teaching ministry that focuses
on God’s unconditional love and grace we
have a better covenant upon better
promises and we have a better
relationship with God we were at such a
desperate place that Andrew who was like
a life it was just life that was coming
from the television and every area in
our life has been turned right-side up
and now here’s the in drew welcome to
our Tuesday’s broadcast of the gospel
truth today I’m continuing to teach
about a better way to pray I just
started this series yesterday this is
going to be a multiple week series I’ve
got a book on this entitled a better way
to pray and I’ve also got it in Spanish
and then I have CDs and DVDs and as I
said yesterday Jesus when he started
teaching on prayer in Matthew chapter 6
the very first thing he did was say
don’t be like the hypocrites because
they love to pray and he began to start
just coming against the religious system
of his day that really emphasizes prayer
but it wasn’t true communion with God
you know if you are having a
conversation and nobody else is
listening well then it’s not really a
conversation it’s just a monologue and
sad to say this is what a lot of people
are doing in prayer they’re saying that
they’re praying but prayer is communion
with God it’s a relationship with God
and yet it has degenerated down to where
with many people it’s just a religious
exercise and it soothes their conscience
but it is not truly connecting with the
Lord and so Jesus and when he started
teaching on prayer
the very first thing he said in Matthew
chapter 6 and verse 5 it says and when
thou prayest thou shalt not be as the
hypocrites are for they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and in the
corners of the streets that they may be
seen of men verily I say unto you they
have their reward and I think that a
large large portion of prayer is so that
people can get acclaim from other people
you know when I go into churches and I
remember the church that I was raised in
you would take these people and they
would ask them to stand up and pray and
typically they would just be normal
people that just talked you know like
anybody else but when it came time to
pray in church it would be like our God
gaawd God and then they would pray in
this Elizabeth Ian’s voice and they
would pray in a booming voice and they
would we beseech you so humbly today and
all of this stuff and it was just a
religious form and I tell you I hate
that stuff I think God hates it I really
do and I play this same thing to
preachers you know I have people all the
time that confessed to me that they saw
my programs for years and just flipped
right on by and the channels and didn’t
watch it because I wasn’t you know
standing and running and jumping and
shouting and screaming and I wasn’t
excited I was just talking in a normal
voice and they thought well you can’t be
anointed because they had this concept
of a certain style that you had to be to
be an effective minister but I am just
the opposite if a person
all of a sudden changes when they get
behind the pulpit or when they open up
the Bible and start sharing the word in
their whole voice changes and they start
using Elizabeth II and English whether
it’s in prayer or ministry or whatever
then I just look at it and say that
you’re religious and I know that there’s
some people to get upset alright but I
tell you you shouldn’t be any different
you could talk to me in a grocery store
you could talk to me pumping gas you can
do anything and I’ll still talk in this
same voice this is me this is who I am
I’m not a different person when I’m on
television or something I believe that
all a minister is you’re just talking to
people one on one and when you have to
change your old personality and become a
different person then you’re just a
hypocrite and this is what Jesus is
talking about right here don’t be like
the hypocrites
they love to pray they do it so that
they can be seen of men you know I held
a meeting one time with RW schambach in
Palm Springs California and some of you
know who RW schambach is and he’s real
demonstrative and he talks you know in a
real dramatic voice and everything but I
went out to eat with him my mother and
my wife and I we all got in his little
convertible and we went out and got some
ice cream and did you know that RW
schambach was exactly the same in the
restaurant exactly the same driving down
the road he witnessed he talked to
people and he was real traumatic but
that was just him he didn’t change to
become that way that was who he was when
a person is usually meek and mild
mannered and yet they be goodbye in the
pulpit and they have to change their old
personality or if a person is just an
everyday you know Joe and then they get
up and they want to pray in front of
people that may all of a sudden start
speaking in Elizabeth II and English and
stuff it’s just hypocritical its
religious at best and it is total
Apocrypha at worse I know some people
don’t like that but this I’m following
the leadership of Jesus before he taught
what prayer was he taught what prayer
wasn’t he came against the religious
traditions of his day and he mentioned
here in this fifth verse people love to
pray standing in the synagogues and in
the corner of the streets there’s other
examples where Jesus talked about the
scribes and the Pharisees and how they
would literally blow trumpets before
them and then they would stand and pray
at the top of their lungs and they would
actually they would pay that person to
go around and blow a trumpet to detract
everybody’s attention and then he would
stand up and go to prayer now that is
not communing with God that is not true
worship of God that is just religious
and there are people that watch this
program that I guarantee you you are
religious in the way you pray and I know
that some people don’t like this we like
to say well I’m afraid it doesn’t matter
how I do it no it does matter how you do
jesus is right here saying that there is
right and wrong ways to pray do not pray
so that you can just be recognized
by people don’t pray in a Elizabethan
tone of voice so that you’re like the
King James Bible and think that somehow
and other your holier when you do that
you just need to be real you need to
talk to God like he’s a real person you
need to talk to him the way that you’d
talked to me maybe with more respect and
honor but you don’t need to change your
whole personality and go to being
something that you aren’t you know the
word hypocrite comes from a Greek word
and it was literally it meant behind the
mask and it went back to the Greek
theater how that they would come out on
stage and they would hold up a mask in
front of them and pretend to be a
different person and so you were an
actor
you weren’t really yourself you were
projecting something you were being
somebody that you weren’t and that’s
what the word hypocrite is describing
and when a person all of a sudden just
starts you know acting totally different
and you’re talking to God in words that
you never use unless you’re praying and
stuff you’re just a hypocrite I’m not
saying that out of bitterness or anger
I’m just trying to say that until we get
rid of the religious junk that has been
taught us about prayer and we get real
with God you aren’t really communicating
with God you know I have people that
come and they meet me and for whatever
reason they want to impress me and so
they just start talking about all of
this stuff and promoting themselves and
they’re doing it so that I can be
impressed with who they are and you know
what that does it makes a negative
impression on me I know that this person
is putting on you know a show for me and
it doesn’t bless me the type of people
that I really like are the people that
are just themselves there are some
people I know that you know what they
aren’t necessarily the most diplomatic
they just say what they think and that
turns a lot of people off but I like it
because I can I can know where I stand
with this person if they don’t like
something they’ll tell me and I can
handle that it’s not a problem with me I
just like people being genuine you know
when I get introduced the number one
thing that
people say about me when they introduce
me is they say he’s the same whether
he’s on television or eat someplace else
and I think to myself what kind of
introduction is that what does that mean
does that mean that other people aren’t
the same does that mean that other
ministers act one way in the pulpit and
they talked one way but then when you
get them by their self they’re different
and I’ve asked that question to people
and they say yes that’s what a lot of
people are there’s a lot of people that
is just a show and this is this is the
very first thing that Jesus said don’t
be like the hypocrites don’t be
hypocritical in your prayer be genuine
be honest talk to the Lord don’t do it
for the praise of men if you do it says
they have their reward that little pat
on the back that they give you and say
oh you’re so awesome that’s your reward
you aren’t gonna get a reward from God
you’ve got with your reward it’s just
that a little bit of recognition that
you get in verse 6 this is Matthew
chapter 6 verse 6 it says but thou when
thou prayest enter into thy closet and
when thou is shut that door pray to thy
father which is in secret and their
father which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly
now I’ve had this verse misused on me
you know when I was in the Baptist
Church and I got really turned on men a
lot of the young people in that church
got excited at the same time and we used
to have morning prayer before we would
go to school and we would get together
and pray as a group in the youth
director of this Baptist Church saw us
as a threat to him because he was not
spiritual at all and he was intimidated
by us and so he came out against us and
told us that we should quit praying and
I said how in the world can you say that
what right do you have to tell us not to
pray and he came up with this verse and
he says you’re supposed to go in your
prayer closet you should not ever pray
in front of another person that’s not
what this is saying because Jesus
himself who said this prayed openly and
then 12th chapter of the book of John he
just out loud said father glorify your
name and there came a voice from heaven
said I have glorified it and will
glorify it again Jesus prayed when he
was on the cross and said father lay not
this sin to there
charge forgive them for they know not
what they do and there’s multiple
instances where jesus prayed publicly in
front of people so this is not saying
that you can’t do it but the emphasis is
that you should not be praying to get
recognition from people you shouldn’t be
praying to have bragging rights and I
tell you there’s a lot of this I don’t
know how many of you remember when the
could you not tarry one our teaching
came out that’s been I forget now but
twenty or thirty years ago in the body
of Christ
and anyway became very popular and they
took the Lord’s Prayer listed right here
in Matthew chapter six and they said it
was like a runner on a track that there
was signpost and that when it says our
Father which art in heaven Hallowed be
that name that means that you enter his
gates with thanksgiving in his courts
with praise and so you spend twenty
minutes
you know just worshiping the Lord and
then you go in to give us this day our
daily bread that’s where you and they
had a an hour’s worth of Prayer broken
down into you spend so much time
praising the Lord so much time asking
for your needs to be meant so much time
confessing your sin and then you end it
and they had this little tract and
people started doing this and pray in an
hour a day and Larry Lee was the guy
that came up with this but it wasn’t him
it was one of his associates there was a
guy who was out traveling and teaching
this series on could you not tarry one
hour and he came and ministered here in
the Colorado Springs area and he came to
my office and I mean after you know
introducing himself and telling me who
he was he said so how much time do you
spend every day praying and it just kind
of took me back when he asked me that
question and immediately I thought so
why do you want to know and the only
reasons that I could think of was either
he wanted to know so that he was gonna
criticize me and say you aren’t doing
enough and try and get me to spend more
time praying or he wanted to compare
himself with me and see if he was holier
than I was because he spent more time
Brayan every day than I did I couldn’t
think of any good reason for a person
asking how much time you spent in prayer
and so I was kind of just thinking about
this and the Lord spoke to me and he
said how much time did you spend with
Jamie yesterday and it’s just so
happened that I had been home that day I
stayed at home and I spent all day with
Jamie and he says so how much time did
you spend I said well all day he says
could you say that you talked to her for
five minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes 30
minutes now I said no I talked to her
all day long we weren’t talking the
whole time but we were there together
and we were visiting and and basically
the Lord just spoke to me if a person
can reduce their prayer time to an hour
a day or 30 minutes or whatever it is
then you have a pretty sorry
relationship with God because he’s with
you 24/7 he’ll never leave you nor
forsake you he’s always there and if God
is always there how could you just spend
you know a few moments talking to them
and then ignoring the rest of the day
that would be like me being with Jamie
all day we may not have talked the whole
time but we were there I was aware of
what she was doing she was aware of what
I was doing we did talk a lot we
communed everything that happened to me
it happened to her and vice versa and
you know this is a way that I’ve come to
pray I just pray and talk to the Lord
constantly when I’m asleep I dream about
the Lord I’m praying I wake up in the
middle of the night and when I roll over
I’m talking to the Lord and I’m praying
when I get up I’m praying when I go to
bed I’m praying I’m talking to the Lord
all of the time you know over in 1st
Thessalonians chapter 5 it says pray
without ceasing and I think that there’s
multiple ways that you can apply that
but one of the ways to apply that is
that you ought to be in communion with
the Lord at all times I think it’s
dangerous when a person can just say I
pray an hour every day well man you
should be in communion with God all the
time the sad fact is some people devote
one hour and they’re focused on the Lord
and they’re talking about the Lord and
talking to the Lord but then the rest of
the day they’ll sit there and watch
things on television that I guarantee it
grieves the Lord it’s not good for you
if you were in communion and praying
with the Lord right then you would not
be watching those things you wouldn’t be
saying some of the things that you say
you wouldn’t be going some of the places
that you go you wouldn’t talk about
people the way that you talk but some
people they just spend a certain segment
of their day with God in the rest of the
day they’re on their own but because
they spend an hour or something with the
Lord well then they think that somehow
or another there’s relationship with God
is superior that’s this is preaching
against that your prayer should not be
so that you could go ask somebody how
much time do you spend in prayer every
day I spend more time than you do I’m
better than you are if you’ve got that
kind of an attitude your prayer stinks
it is not ministering to God it’s not
truly touching God it’s not communing
with God there’s a lot of religious junk
going on with prayer in verse 7 this is
Matthew chapter 6 verse 7 but when you
pray use not vain repetitions as the
heathen do for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking
so this is really clear when you pray
don’t use vain repetition don’t just say
the same thing over and over this would
be comparable to people pray in the
Rosary our Father
Hail Mary all of these kind of things
people reciting the Lord’s Prayer which
the Lord’s Prayer is given in just the
next few verses right here but there are
people that you know they just recite
this as a mantra and think that somehow
or another this is connecting with the
Lord it’s not you know I’ve been in
services before where demons manifest
themselves and I’m casting demons out of
people and I mean there’s some strange
things happening and it causes fear in
some of the people that are around and I
remember an instance where a woman
standing next to me when this demon
manifested she got fearful and she
started saying I Father which art in
heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom
come thy way and she was just spitting
out the horns prayer like a machine gun
and she was just repeating his thing as
fast as she could and I actually turned
over and
said stop it and she thought wrong I’m
repeating scripture I’m repeating the
Lord’s Prayer she was doing it in fear
it wasn’t from her heart it’s you know
it says over in 1st Corinthians chapter
13 if you give all of your goods to feed
the poor and if you even make the
ultimate sacrifice and give your body to
be burned and don’t do it motivated by
love it profits you nothing the motive
behind your action is more important
than your action right there in first
Corinthians 13 verse 1 and says if I
speak with the tongues of men and of
angels and have not charity I’m a
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal if
I can prophesy if I have faith if I can
do all of these things and don’t do it
motivated by love it profits me nothing
if you are reciting the Lord’s Prayer
and you’re just spitting it out but your
heart is full of fear well then the
motive behind your words are more
important in your words and there are
some people that just recite these
prayers they have these mantras they go
through a rosary they go through their
rituals on Sunday and they recite these
written prayers and this is exactly what
Jesus is teaching against he says do not
use vain repetitions as the heathen do
they he there and have these mantras
that they go through they just say the
same things over and over and over and
somehow or another think that that makes
them holy it just makes them carnal it
makes them hypocrites you know I know
that there’s a lot of people not being
blessed by what I’m saying but before we
can actually lay a good foundation we
got a jackhammer and get rid of all of
this old stuff and I am reading to you
scriptures that Jesus said Jesus was in
a religious culture when he was here on
this earth and the religious Jews were
hypocrites to the max they would blow
trumpets pray on street corners they
would do all of these things they had
these phylacteries that they little
strips of leather that they put around
their forehead and it had a pouch right
here and they kept scripture in there so
that this scripture would be constantly
in front of their eyes
and it’s went back to Deuteronomy
chapter 6 where it says that you shall
meditate in these things and you keep
this scripture in front of you day and
night never let it depart from your eyes
so they would put these little
phylacteries there and they would do all
this stuff they had all of the motions
down pat but it was just religious
exercise it was not genuine and God
hated that stuff and he still hates it
today there’s a lot of people that your
prayer is nothing but just religious
stuff you aren’t talking to God from
your heart this is they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking
the length of your prayer isn’t what’s
important it’s not if you pray an hour
that you’re somehow or another better
than a person that prays for a minute
did you know that some of the very best
prayers that you could possibly pray are
help and that’s a great prayer oh god
help mat you know that’s a great prayer
you look at Jesus and his prayers were
real short like be healed he would speak
to the seed be still I mean he’s just
one or two words he didn’t pray long
long long prayers now there are some
times there’s twice two separate
instances it’s recorded more than once
because of the four Gospels but there’s
two separate instances where Jesus spent
all night in prayer one of them was
before he chose his 12 disciples and I
believe he was specifically asking for
wisdom and direction so that he would
make the right choices and so there’s
twice that he prayed all night and of
course there’s other times that he would
go up into a mountain to pray in Jesus
prayed but most of his prayers were very
short prayers he said specifically that
the hypocrites think that they will be
heard for their much speaking that is
just absolutely wrong and we have that
same pharisaical attitude in the body of
Christ today that it’s all about how
long you pray and whether or not you use
the Elizabethan English and whether or
not you say God gaawd instead of God and
it’s all of this junk that doesn’t mean
a thing to God and that
pat on the back that little you know
smile that people give and they nod your
head when you walk by because you’re so
holy that’s your reward that’s all
you’re gonna get that doesn’t connect
with God I’m telling you God would
rather you be real with him you know
when I first got started in ministry I
was in Pritchett Colorado and I
ministered to a lot of farmers and
ranchers and most of them never went to
church and one of the reasons cuz they
didn’t want to be with the hypocrites
they were in church but they were good
people and many of them were born-again
and if they weren’t born again I got him
born-again but I love these people
because they were just totally
non-pretentious it was just all genuine
and man I loved it I fit right in with
them and I think that God many times is
more pleased with that than the people
who put on all of their fancy guard go
to church and they can say all the right
things and do all of this but their
heart is far from God it’s all about
your heart God looks on the heart first
Samuel 16:7
and God is looking at your heart and God
knows whether you’re putting on a show
or not I’m telling you these scriptures
to me just say don’t be hypocritical be
real with God you’re gonna hear things
you’re gonna start understanding things
seeing things from a different way it’s
called the summer family Bible
conference guess what that’s not just
because you brought your kids it’s
because in this room we’re family
there’s nobody in here that God doesn’t
want to prosper he sees a purpose in you
that he wants to set free listen you’ve
been sowing sowing sowing it’s time for
us to reap our harvest it’s going to
completely change the way that you live
your life
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Andrews complete teaching titled a
better way to pray is available as a
book in either English or Spanish today
Andrew would like to offer this book as
his free gift to you go to a WMI dotnet
to get your copy today I’d like to
encourage you to get this free book that
we’re offering on prayer I’ve got other
product here study guide DVD CDs but
we’re offering this book to you as our
gift and I tell you this is a powerful
teaching especially during this time you
know we’re just going through this virus
that hit the world actually a pandemic
and man people are praying but many
times are praying wrong out of
desperation begging God they don’t know
the rights and privileges that God has
given us and I promise you this would
transform your prayer life we are
offering this as a free gift to you so
listen to our announcer as he gives you
the details and please call or write
today to receive our free book on a
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each of these valuable resources is
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also available for audio download
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to hear from you today Harris an
accredited Bible College in the
beautiful town of Woodland Park has been
changing people’s lives for over 25
years the people here are so like-minded
they want to help you grow these are
people who genuinely care about you they
want the best for you be prepared to be
blown away with the teachings it’s not
just a season in your life there’s no
way you can’t change you can’t really go
wrong going to a place that you get to
sit and listen to the word for four
hours a day being on the word that much
just a lot got divorced so much into me
if you feel supernatural peace if I
coming to Kharis that’s God I know
you’re like how when where all these
questions just do it the Lord will
provide I was doubting and
second-guessing it but when I took that
step of faith immediately like things
are provided just being around
like-minded believers teachers who are
there for you and ready to talk to you
at any moment and answer your questions
there’s just nothing like it
just follow the leading of the one that
you serve and that’s always going to be
the right direction to go
go to Karis Bible College org to
register today I want to let you know
that we are doing what we call a live
Bible study every Tuesday night at six
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broadcasting from my facilities here in
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the word and it’s actually live you can
text in your question you can call and
ask for prayer but we will answer as
many of your questions as we can about
25 30 minutes worth of teaching and
maybe 25 minutes worth of answering
questions it’s just a great interactive
thing every Tuesday night 6 o’clock p.m.
Mountain Standard Time
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